It's a New Year

I often go through cycles of Knitting. Either i knit like my life depended on it or i'm just not interested in knitting at all. I'm currently in a not knitting phase. I have picked up a knitting project here and there over the past couple months but i haven't really thrown myself into finishing a project. Now when i'm actually feeling like knitting again i've gone and hurt my left hand so knitting isn't possible right now.

I need a project that inspires me, that will get me back into my knitting flow, once my hand stops hurting that is.

I suck at Blogging

Wow it's been a year since I posted anything. It's crazy to think, but this year i haven't done that much knitting. I started a bunch of sweaters which i never completed and have lost track of where i was at with them. I've had many project intentions but just never got around to doing them or finishing them. Recently my mind has returned to knitting, perhaps because i've started catching up on the past couple months of new podcasts by Never Not Knitting. That show always inspires me. Recently she had a guest on who spoke about sweater designing and that got me to pull off the shelf a book my friend bought me about knitwear design. Unfortunately, i have recently had PRK laser eye surgery and was not yet able to read the book. I'll read it soon, once my vision is 100%

Over the past year, i have actually completed a knit project. It's the TARDIS from Doctor Who.
I finished it and the promptly displayed it on my bed to show it off to my family who were coming over to visit. Within moments my brother in law was lying on my bed with the TV on using my TARDIS as a pillow. I gasped in horror. I had just spent a good 10 minutes trying to make sure the shape of the TARDIS was perfect before displaying it on my bed and he's just mushed is under is head. I quickly took it away from him. I tried to put it back in shape and then placed it up out of reach.

That is not the end of the story though. My poor TARDIS became the object of affection for my 3 year old nephew who is a Doctor Who fan. He was just delighted to be able to hold onto the TARDIS and hold it he did. Up and down and spinning around. His little fingers penetrating the stitches and pulling out ends i thought were hidden inside. My TARDIS now just doesn't sit right and it looks a little worse for wear. I keep it high up on a shelf now and I'm working on a smaller version for my nephew to play with.

That's basically what's been going on with me knit wise. I plan on getting back into the swing of things. I tend to go through phases where I binge knit and then i have nothing to do with it for a while. It's time to start shifting back into knit mode.

Catch you later.

Knitting Post Condo Move

I have recently bought and moved into a condo. This has really stunted my knitting this year so far. Though I did knit a couple pillows and have lots of planned projects for my condo, i.e. blanket, place mats etc, i haven't really done all that much knitting this year.

Immediately following the Christmas sizing disaster I spent a lot of time redoing sweaters for my brother and nephew. I'm a whole lot happier with the end results now. The Christmas sweater I originally made for Gary is now sitting in a drawer at my place and I replaced it with a raglan sweater in a more flattering grey colour and a style that suits him a whole lot better. For Gabriel, I asked him what colours he'd like used for the replacement sweater. He picked Red and blue. I think it added a bit more specialness to it that he got to pick his own colours and hopefully he will enjoy wearing it more because of that fact. This winter will be the test to see if he has out grown the sweater. That kid just keeps on growing. Thankfully, if that is the case, his little brother Gavin will always grow into it.

When I was looking for the Condo I wanted to buy, I had an image in my head of my bedroom. I'd have bright blue walls, white bedding and I'd have a blue blanket at the foot of my bed. In order to make this happen I immediately started making Bernat's Shaded Shells Afghan. I had bought a pattern book that was on clearance from Mary Maxim a number of years before. It had four different blanket patterns to knit and it also had a variety of pillow patterns as well. This Country Cozy pattern book was on clearance for $1.99 and I thought, why not. It paid off. Though in the end my mother surprised me with a quilt that my late grandmother had made for me, which my mother had been saving all these years that I now use on my bed in my beautiful blue bedroom (the quilt was blue, it's like my Grandmother just knew that that is what I would want), I'm still working on the Shaded Shell blanket and will find it a home in my condo once I finish it. The shell pattern in the blanket is a repeat of 28 rows and I've found now that I've finished four of the six panels, that I'm so bored with the pattern. This boredom inspired me to start another project for myself. I know, another knitted item for me, but hey, I have hardly knit anything for myself. I've always loved giving my crafts as gifts and I think I'm due some self knitting love.

I'm knitting a sweater called The Cozy Cable Hooded Cardigan from Bernet. It was a free pattern you can get off their website. I'm using the Satin solid colours yarn for this in the Aqua colourway. I have recently discovered that I look pretty good in Aqua. Apparently it really brings out my eyes and make my strawberry blonde hair pop. Like most sweaters, the back knit up super fast. Gotta love stocking stitch. Just turn your brain off and knit away. It's the perfect thing for when you want to veg in front of the TV while feeling productive at the same time. The front takes a bit more focus as there is a cable pattern that runs up the entire way. I remember a time when I was scared of the thought of doing a cable pattern. It looked so complicated to do. Awww foolish past self. You had no idea how easy it really is. I should have this sweater done in time for fall, which is really just around the corner now that I think about it. I can't wait to sport this sweater around the office. I have chosen a smaller size than I normally would for myself. In the past, I always seem to choose a larger size than I actually need and then I end up hating the finished product because I don't find it flattering. My hope is that by this time choosing a medium size instead of the large, it will fit me like it should and it won't get banished to the drawer along with Gary's original Christmas sweater and various other sweaters from the past that were to big and baggy on me.

Once the blanket and cardigan sweater are done I think I will get back to the fisherman's sweater I was so excited to start earlier this year, which has now been sitting in a drawer unfinished for the past 6 months. Oh tiny needles, you produce a good looking sweater, but hell it takes forever to see any progress.

More updates to come.

It's been awhile

I have not had time to post anything new lately. I have been knitting though and on my next post i will include photos.

I redid the sweater I made for Gabriel that was to small. I asked him about what colours he'd like me to use this time and he request Red and Blue so that is what i did. I ended up buying more yarn than I actually needed, like usual so to get through it I've been knitting him matching hats and scarfs. I still have a ball of red to finish.

I'm currently making big progress on the Fisherman's Sweater I was itching to start all the way through my Christmas knitting. Now I find that I'm bored with it. I don't want to do the chest pattern anymore. So I've moved on to redoing the sweater I made for Gary which was slightly to small. Instead of actually redoing the same pattern, where even the XL size is to small for him, I went with a different pattern that went up to XXL. It's weird cause Gary is not a big guy. So I don't know what's up with that.

Anyways, I will post updates with photos soon.

Post Christmas report

So things didn't exactly go as I planned. For Christmas day I needed four sweaters done, two hats and a scarf. I got them all done but it turned out that two of the four sweaters were to small. The sweater I knit for my Brother-in-Law Gary was to short in length and the sleeve lengths were a couple inches to short. It was also a bit tight around the under arms for him.

Once he put it on I also realized that I hate this colour for him. It looked so nice as I was knitting it and when I layed it down to take a photo of it when i was done I thought to myself how attractive it was, but then he put it on and i was disgusted by it. The blue is to bright for his complexion. I don't know what i was thinking.

I had also made a matching one for his 5 year old son, my nephew Gabriel but it also was to small. I did a size 6, according to the pattern, but it ended up fitting my almost 2 year old nephew Gavin instead of Gabriel. I think for this particular pattern I may need to do a men's small for him. I don't get why the size is so off. The colour doesn't look as bad on Gabriel but he is also more light skinned. Thank goodness the hat I made him fit and I did buy him a DVD of Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog as well so he wasn't without a present after the sweater didn't fit.

He does look really cute in the hat.

The new plan is to redo the sweaters for them. I'm going to take this opportunity to select a more flattering colour for Gary. I'm thinking maybe a dark gray. Since I have to redo Gabriel's as well I can still do the Father/Son theme I was going for with matching sweaters.

I did have better luck with the other two sweaters I made for my almost 2 year old nephew's Gavin and Mosheh. I made them each little cardigans with bears heads for pockets. I wish I had gotten a picture of Mosheh when he figured out they were pockets. He walked around with his little hands jammed so far into them.

I must admit that the inclusion of a pack of lollipops in both Gavin and Mosheh's presents did over shadow the sweaters for them. They probably would have been just happy having only those. :-) The lollipops did help distract them long enough to get them each into their sweaters so we could take pictures and have some of the other family members open presents.

They both look super cute in their bear cardigans. My sister Lisa liked the style of the cardigan, specifically the collar that I think I may make a couple more of them, minus the bear pockets. It's an easy knit and the Bernat Satin Sport yarn is really soft and nice to work with.




The other hat and scarf were made for Lisa. She always has her hair in a ponytail and I hardly ever see her wearing a hat, I assume because of that. So I used the Hannah pattern i found on Ravelry.

The hat has an opening in the back which the hair can fit through. As well, it had a flap that buttons up rather than just having a hole that you pull the hair through. The flap helps to keep from messing the hair up. She was very excited about it. I also knit her a scarf using Paton's Melody yarn. She loves this yarn. I made a baby blanket out of it for Mosheh and she raved about how warm and soft it was. I like using the Melody yarn as well cause it knits up really fast on size 10 needles.

The final kicker of the past couple days was Gavin's birthday sweater. That is the train sweater i featured earlier on this blog. I have the front, back and one sleeve done and it was at this point that I realized that it too is way to small. I don't know what is wrong with my brain. I would look at it and think yup this is big enough, but then i put it up to Mosheh yesterday and it was even to small for him and he's smaller than Gavin. So tomorrow I'm going to do the mad dash out and pick him up a birthday present now that i can't give him the sweater on December 28th. I didn't want to go out today to do it because it's boxing day and I did not want to have to fight crowds of people looking for deals. The parking alone would be madness. As he did get Gabriel's intended Christmas sweater i don't feel as much personal pressure to knit him a whole new sweater and I figure I can finish the Train sweater and give it to my friend Erin who is expecting a baby boy in February.

I'm still working on two more sweaters for my friend Lindsay's kids. I have her daughter's sweater done but have yet to finish her sons. It's a seamless Yoke sweater so it's knit up in the round which is a pain when doing colourway changes for patterns. When doing rows on straight needles the yarn for each colour is left where you need it for the next row. When working in the round though it's always on the opposite side so you have to either cut it or pull it across and that could lead to bunching. When I got to that part today and realized this I said to myself screw this and picked up the Fisherman sweater I've just started. It is also knit in the round but it's all one colour so I can basically knit and not think right now which is what I need after all the disappointment of failed sizing.

So my new knitting queue is as follows:

- Embroider face onto Kittens on Leah's sweater
- Sweater for Andrew
- Finish birthday sweater for Mosheh (Jan 19th)
- Finish Train sweater which will now be for Erin's soon to be born boy
- Sweater for my cousin's new baby girl (already started)
- Fisherman's Sweater (the only sweater I really feel like knitting right now)
- New sweater for Gary
- New sweater for Gabriel

So that is where I'm at now after Christmas. Still have mountains of knitting to do.

So four days till Christmas eve, which is when my family opens presents. I have three sweaters to finish by then. I am really close on all three of them. I'm currently finishing the neck band on my brother-in-laws Raglan sweater. Then i just need to sew together the sleeves and side seams and darn in the ends. I'm making a cute cardigan for each of my two one year old nephews. Both have been blocked and sewn together. I just need to finish the button bands and then sew on the teddy bear pockets.

I have finished one of the Christmas sweaters though. The Raglan for my nephew Gabriel. I also made a matching hat to go with it. The sweater I'm making for my Brother-in-Law is the same sweater just larger. It will be so cute when they wear them at the same time.

Sweater 1 and 7 of 9

As you know i have taken on a hefty amount of knitting projects for this years Christmas/birthday giving haul. I am currently working on 9 sweaters as well as some smaller projects. I will feature sweater number 1 now, though technically it's not the sweater i started first, it's just the first one i finished blocking. This sweater is for my nephew Gabriel who is 5 years old. Over the years Gabriel has been my main focus for knitting. I have knit him a number of sweaters and toys since he was a baby. My sister even had him photographed professionally with two dinosaur toys and a dinosaur blanket i made him. I think that may have been more for my benefit though. I will post pictures of Clappy and Brainiac later. Those were the names we gave to the dinosaurs.

For Christmas i'm knitting Gabriel a raglan sweater. It has a matching toque as well that i did. Complete with a fun pom pom. I have done the sweater in a size 6 in Paton's Classic Merino Wool. It is 100% Pure New Wool. The colour i'm using is Denim Marl for the main and New Denim for the contrast colour. This sweater should be nice and warm and hopefully stylish.

The fun part is the Sweater 2 of 9 is a matching sweater for Gabriel's dad, my Brother in Law, Gary. It will be really cute seeing them dressed alike. I've got 23 days to finish all these sweaters. I'm feeling pretty good about it.

*UPDATE*

I got a lot done on the back of the Train Sweater for Gavin last night. I can already tell this sweater is going to be a darning nightmare. It is super cute though so it will be worth it. I'm surprised how quickly this is actually knitting up. I was concerned that with the 2.25mm needles it would take a whole lot longer but it's coming along nicely.

Once again i ran into where the graph was slightly off and i don't know why. It is specifically at where you start binding off for the shoulder. I usually photocopy the graph and then mark off each row as i go. Unless i missed a row, which who knows maybe i did in a sleep deprived knitting obsessed late night moment but i find that with these old knit o graph patterns that this happens a lot. What should be a knit row, where i am to then bind off for the armhole, turns out to be a purl row. I usually have to add in an extra row, which isn't the end of the world but still bothers me that it's off. I'm hoping to have this sweater's parts all knitted up by the end of this week. Then i just need to start sweater 8 of 9 and sweater 9 of 9. Oh did i mention that sweater 9 is done on 2.5mm circular needles using fingering weight yarn? Yeah i'm not going to be able to move my hands for like a month after all this.